PG&E (West Coast USA) is doing rolling blackouts to prevent fires. House fires can be caused by faulty electrical appliances, open fires and heaters, or unattended cooking. Smoke alarms are essential for home fire safety. It’s also a very good idea to have a fire extinguisher and fire blanket at home. A home fire escape plan helps your family know what to do and where to go in a fire emergency at home. Don’t forget to have a disaster preparedness box or backpack according to the possible hazards in your area. Tweezers are always good to have on hand, but many other things as well. Stay safe out there!
World Space Week
WORLD SPACE WEEK
Every year, World Space Week launches events around the world, recognizing achievements in space science and technology. It’s the largest space event on Earth, and it takes place on October 4-10. Space agencies, schools, planetaria, museums, and astronomy clubs host events during the week to help leverage space education and outreach.
The week celebrates science and technology, focusing on space science, educating people about the benefits they receive from space. One of the goals of the week is to excite young people about STEM, Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math. On a more worldwide scale, the week encourages international cooperation in space outreach and education.
The observance is an international celebration of science and technology, and their contributions to the betterment of the human condition.
To find out more, check out this link: https://nationaldaycalendar.com/world-space-week-october-4-10/
October Awareness
Can you believe it is already October tomorrow? Tomorrow marks the start of many awareness projects all over the world! I really liked to see all the other countries on the first list I pulled up and wanted to share it!
Autism Awareness Month: Canada Autism Society Canada
Breast Cancer Awareness Month: Worldwide Macmillan Cancer Support + Others
Down Syndrome Awareness Month United States National Down Syndrome Society
Healthy Lung Month United States American Lung Association
Liver Awareness Month United States American Liver Foundation
Lupus Awareness Month United Kingdom Lupus UK
National Orthodontic Health Month United States American Association of Orthodontics
National Spina Bifida Awareness Month United States Spina Bifida Association
Rett Syndrome Awareness Month Worldwide International Rett Syndrome Foundation
SIDS Awareness Month Worldwide National Institute of Child Health & Human Development
Music In The Park
What is Music in the Park? When searched it says that the history of Music in the Park is a day-long or two-day festival for student choral, orchestral, and band ensembles, held annually across the United States. Music groups perform before adjudicators who rate the ensemble in the morning, and then spend the day at an amusement park. The day culminates with an awards ceremony. Awards can be given to either a single player or a whole ensemble.
The festivals are organized by the Educational Programs Network.
Music in the Park has a wide variety of comradery and entertainment depending on the area, but what a great way to bring people together!
In the town of Albany, CA where I grew up (with frequent visits from “Uncle Bill” ) Music in the Park is a little different. The slogan is: Bring a picnic & a blanket! Bring family! Bring a friend! It's Music in the Park time again. Albany provides free concerts every Wednesday night in September.
Fall is almost here! Get ready for pretty colors, but enjoy the last of our summer nights with music, movies, camping, nice days with lemonde, etc!
Sale!
Happy way late Labor Day weekend everyone! I realized I never did a sale, so I felt like doing it this week! If you order today or tomorrow (Friday-Saturday) by e-mail: kjslivergripper@gmail.com mentioning the sale, I will through in an extra tweezer for every order over 5! Enjoy the weekend!
Solano Stroll
It’s that time of year again where the kids have gone back to school and Music in Park starts along with other events. My grandfather was really into having family days. My father took over that tradition (along with many other similarities.) In Albany California we have the Solano Stroll which is a huge day out with families and booths occupying the whole street of Solano Ave (a mile long). About 250,000 people show up to this little town and enjoy the festivities with their families and friends. among those family are many owners of the Sliver Grippers. I thought that I would share this information for those travelers since it is still summer. If you are ever in the Bay Area, Albany is a nice suburban town and the current home of the Silver Grippers.
8 Unusual Uses for Tweezers
I’ve posted unusual ways to use the tweezers before, but this is for different kinds of tweezers. It’s just interesting all the uses and different kinds of tweezers there are, so check this out!
https://www.instructables.com/id/-Unusual-Uses-for-Tweezers/
The Manufacturing Process
The Sliver Grippers are 100% USA and man made steel. The manufacturing of stainless steel involves a series of processes. First, the steel is melted, and then it is cast into solid form. After various forming steps, the steel is heat treated and then cleaned and polished to give it the desired finish. Next, it is packaged and sent to manufacturers, who weld and join the steel to produce the desired shapes.
Melting and casting
The raw materials are first melted together in an electric furnace. This step usually requires 8 to 12 hours of intense heat. When the melting is finished, the molten steel is cast into semi-finished forms. These include blooms (rectangular shapes), billets (round or square shapes 1.5 inches or 3.8 centimeters in thickness), slabs, rods, and tube rounds.
Forming
Next, the semi-finished steel goes through forming operations, beginning with hot rolling, in which the steel is heated and passed through huge rolls. Blooms and billets are formed into bar and wire, while slabs are formed into plate, strip, and sheet. Bars are available in all grades and come in rounds, squares, octagons, or hexagons 0.25 inch (.63 centimeter) in size. Wire is usually available up to 0.5 inch (1.27 centimeters) in diameter or size. Plate is more than 0.1875 inch (.47 centimeter) thick and over 10 inches (25.4 centimeters) wide. Strip is less than 0.185 inch (.47 centimeter) thick and less than 24 inches (61 centimeters) wide. Sheet is less than 0.1875 (.47 centimeter) thick and more than 24 (61 centimeters) wide.
Heat treatment
After the stainless steel is formed, most types must go through an annealing step. Annealing is a heat treatment in which the steel is heated and cooled under controlled conditions to relieve internal stresses and soften the metal. Some steels are heat treated for higher strength. However, such a heat treatment—also known as age hardening —requires careful control, for even small changes from the recommended temperature, time, or cooling rate can seriously affect the properties. Lower aging temperatures produce high strength with low fracture toughness, while higher-temperature aging produces a lower strength, tougher material.
Though the heating rate to reach the aging temperature (900 to 1000 degrees Fahrenheit or 482 to 537 degrees Celsius) does not effect the properties, the cooling rate does. A post-aging quenching (rapid cooling) treatment can increase the toughness without a significant loss in strength. One such process involves water quenching the material in a 35-degree Fahrenheit (1.6-degree Celsius) ice-water bath for a minimum of two hours.
The type of heat treatment depends on the type of steel; in other words, whether it is austenitic, ferritic, or martensitic. Austenitic steels are heated to above 1900 degrees Fahrenheit (1037 degrees Celsius) for a time depending on the thickness. Water quenching is used for thick sections, whereas air cooling or air blasting is used for thin sections. If cooled too slowly, carbide precipitation can occur. This buildup can be eliminated by thermal stabilization. In this method, the steel is held for several hours at 1500 to 1600 degrees Fahrenheit (815 to 871 degrees Celsius). Cleaning part surfaces of contaminants before heat treatment is sometimes also necessary to achieve proper heat treatment.
Descaling
Annealing causes a scale or build-up to form on the steel. The scale can be removed using several processes. One of the most common methods, pickling, uses a nitric-hydrofluoric acid bath to descale the steel. In another method, electrocleaning, an electric current is applied to the surface using a cathode and phosphoric acid, and the scale is removed. The annealing and descaling steps occur at different stages depending on the type of steel being worked. Bar and wire, for instance, go through further forming steps (more hot rolling, forging, or extruding) after the initial hot rolling before being annealed and descaled. Sheet and strip, on the other hand, go through an initial annealing and descaling step immediately after hot rolling. After cold rolling (passing through rolls at a relatively low temperature), which produces a further reduction in thickness, sheet and strip are annealed and descaled again. A final cold rolling step then prepares the steel for final processing.
Cutting
Cutting operations are usually necessary to obtain the desired blank shape or size to trim the part to final size. Mechanical cutting is accomplished by a variety of methods, including straight shearing using guillotine knives, circle shearing using circular knives horizontally and vertically positioned, sawing using high speed steel blades, blanking, and nibbling. Blanking uses metal punches and dies to punch out the shape by shearing. Nibbling is a process of cutting by blanking out a series of overlapping holes and is ideally suited for irregular shapes.
Stainless steel can also be cut using flame cutting, which involves a flame-fired torch using oxygen and propane in conjunction with iron powder. This method is clean and fast. Another cutting method is known as plasma jet cutting, in which an ionized gas column in conjunction with an electric arc through a small orifice makes the cut. The gas produces extremely high temperatures to melt the metal.
Finishing
Surface finish is an important specification for stainless steel products and is critical in applications where appearance is also important. Certain surface finishes also make stainless steel easier to clean, which is obviously important for sanitary applications. A smooth surface as obtained by polishing also provides better corrosion resistance. On the other hand, rough finishes are often required for lubrication applications, as well as to facilitate further manufacturing steps.
Surface finishes are the result of processes used in fabricating the various forms or are the result of further processing. There are a variety of methods used for finishing. A dull finish is produced by hot rolling, annealing, and descaling. A bright finish is obtained by first hot rolling and then cold rolling on polished rolls. A highly reflective finish is produced by cold rolling in combination with annealing in a controlled atmosphere furnace, by grinding with abrasives, or by buffing a finely ground surface. A mirror finish is produced by polishing with progressively finer abrasives, followed by extensive buffing. For grinding or polishing, grinding wheels or abrasive belts are normally used. Buffing uses cloth wheels in combination with cutting compounds containing very fine abrasive particles in bar or stick forms. Other finishing methods include tumbling, which forces
The initial steel shapes—blooms, billets, slabs, etc.—are hot rolled into bar, wire, sheet, strip, and plate. Depending on the form, the steel then undergoes further rolling steps (both hot and cold rolling), heat treatment (annealing), descaling Ito remove buildup), and polishing to produce the finished stainless steel. The steel is then sent the end user.
movement of a tumbling material against surfaces of parts, dry etching (sandblasting), wet etching using acid solutions, and surface dulling. The latter uses sandblasting, wire brushing, or pickling techniques.
Read more: http://www.madehow.com/Volume-1/Stainless-Steel.html#ixzz5j7JYU1d8
Throw Back: Eyelashes
I find it interesting working with many different industries and to learn how they use the Sliver Gripper. The fashion world uses them for many things, but my grandfather originally invented their pin point precision to remove a sliver that his nephew had. The other day one lady told me that she uses them to remove her fake eyelashes. And another said she uses them to separate her lashes after putting on mascara instead of a eyelash brush because it can be more precise! What sort of new way will people come up with next?
Rosie the Riveter
Tomorrow Rosie the Riveter Museum in Richmond is having a tribe. So who was she?
Rosie the Riveter is a cultural icon of World War II, representing the women who worked in factories and shipyards during World War II, many of whom produced munitions and war supplies. These women sometimes took entirely new jobs replacing the male workers who joined the military. Rosie the Riveter is used as a symbol of American feminism and women’s economic advantages. Similar images of women war workers appeared in other countries such as Britain and Australia. The idea of Rosie the Riveter originated in a song written in 1942 by Redd Evans and John Jacob Loeb. Images of women workers were widespread in the media as government posters, and commercial advertising was heavily used by the government to encourage women to volunteer for wartime service in factories. Rosie the Riveter became the subject and title of a Hollywood movie during WWII.
For more information check out this site: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosie_the_Riveter
First Friday
Happy Friday! And First Friday at that. This month there is National Night Out, Music in the Park and Block Parties all over! How did this all start? Well let’s take a look at First Friday first:
"First Friday" is a name for various public events in some cities (particularly in the US that occur on the first Friday of every month.
These citywide events may take on many purposes, including art gallery openings, and social and political networking. American cities have promoted such events to bring people to historic areas perceived as dangerous, using the “safety in numbers” mentality to combat urban decay. In some cities this monthly event may occur on the first Saturday of each month instead of Friday or on “Third Thursdays.”
Additionally, these are "see and be seen" events that serve as a block party or social gathering open to the general public. Some of these events may be centered on political networking by Republicans and Democrats, but usually First Fridays are art and entertainment destinations. They may involve pub crawling, other retail establishments such as cafes and restaurants, and performances by fire twirling acts, jazz musicians, belly dancing, street musicians, or others.
"First Fridays" is also a nationally recognized networking event targeting African American professionals held on the first Friday of every month in various cities throughout North America. These events started in 1987 and provide urban professionals an opportunity to socially network, exchange and share ideas on professional, educational, political and social issues.
Art gallery openings
Some cities hold "gallery hops" and "art walks", in which a number of the town's art galleries, museums, or artists' studios, both commercial and non-profit organizations, will open their doors on Friday evening. The idea is that galleries will attract people to the downtown and enrich the art community by pooling their openings together, sometimes, as in the case of Art6 Gallery and Artspace in Richmond, VA (when in Jackson Ward at 6 East Broad Street) into one monthly evening in a historically-located designated arts district.
Richmond, VA is among the largest First Fridays art walks in the nation. It draws nearly 20,000 people from all over the state of Virginia and nation, showcasing its artistic side and opening restaurants and art galleries all over. Art6 Gallery and Artspace were two of the first anchor galleries for First Fridays on Broad Street in Richmond.
One of the oldest First Friday's is located in Boston's SoWa Arts District where more than 80 artists open their studios to the public every First Friday. The SoWa Arts District is located at Harrison Ave and Thayer Street in Boston's South End. In 2015, USA Today’s 10BEST readers’ poll voted the SoWa as the second best arts district in the country.
Social networking
Some First Fridays promote arts and culture combined with social networking, like Frist Fridays in Tucson, AZ. Other smaller-scale First Fridays serve as social gatherings for groups of friends or people new to an area and may involve no art.
They may also include the large First Friday events such as those in Phoenix, Arizona attracting up to 20,000 attendees to hundreds of spaces.
Various cities areas have First Fridays centered on politically conservative networking. The pioneer of these events began in Washington, D.C. but similar events have found success in Virginia, Nevada, and Arizona.
In many cities, First Fridays events place an emphasis on African American networking and business opportunities for African American professionals. First Friday is the top networking event for African American professionals and consistently attracts over 16,000 people each month across North America according to First Fridays United.
The First Fridays monthly events originated in 1987 as an outlet for African American professionals to mix, mingle and network. During the 1980s it was common for an individual to be the only black professional working in their company. First Fridays happy hours become a way for these professionals to meet in a social atmosphere while exchanging useful information. The concept spread rapidly and First Fridays chapters now operate in 39 cities across North America and seven countries worldwide.
In 2002, several First Fridays operators created First Fridays United, which is a company founded to organize the existing First Fridays chapters in 30 cities into one group to share information, resources and solicit corporate sponsors and advertisers. The organization sponsors a series of international events in addition to the monthly networking happy hours. Today, First Fridays reaches over 450,000 urban professionals through email, internet, and event marketing and has had numerous Fortune 1000 corporate clients.
The History of the Kentucky Derby Hat
It was funny. I thought that the Kentucky Derby was this weekend even though I watched it back in May. A collection of Derby hats hung in a stretch of downtown stores confusing yet entertaining me. But what is the first thing that comes to mind when you think of the Kentucky Derby? It should probably be horses, but, for a lot of people, it’s hats! Fancy and loud hats are hanging on every wall of any store you enter.
So how did hats become synonymous with this race?
The first Kentucky Derby was run in 1875 at the Churchill Downs racetrack near Louisville, Kentucky. The race inspired by the famed derby races in England and the Grand Prix de Paris in France. Europe’s horse races are posh and sophisticated events, but in the United States horse-racing was associated with gambling and drinking, not really a family environment.
In order to ensure that the Kentucky Derby would match the tone of the high society races in Europe, women needed to be there, so in an effort to get women to the track the organizers decided to implement the high-end "full morning dress code" to all who came to the race.
The full morning dress was the most formal dress code there was for daytime events. For men, that included waistcoats, top hats, and cravats. Women wore dresses, gloves, and hats, but initially the hats weren't as colorful as today. During the 1960s, wearing hats became less and less of a social norm, and more for special events. That’s when the hats at the derby started getting bigger, bolder, and more colorful.
The hat's popularity dipped in the 1970s and 80s, but is now more popular than ever and are a staple of style watches during the Kentucky Derby. People can spend up to $3,000 on a custom made hat. The Kentucky Derby is the ultimate high society and fashion event, so much so that it’s hard to imagine the "Run for the Roses" without this highly personalized accessory.
Enjoy the race if you are watching!
The Tweezer Tooth
I came across this for the second time and still find it just so interesting. Not what I would think of when I want tweezers, but it’s nice to know how creative tweezers can get. This is meant for one use. Also known as toothed forceps and skin forceps. They have interlocking teeth for a better grip on slippery/flimsy materials during any surgical incision procedure. Never seen one before, so I thought I would share.
Birthdays
This month starts the birthdays of my entire family including the late and great “Uncle Bill” aka, my grandfather! I wanted to honor his memory by taking this time to mention him. He was such a creative man in all aspects of his life and always made time for his family. His memory lives on not just with the tweezers, but I’m thankful to have many connections through the tweezers. Thank you to the loyal customers!
4th of July Sale Part 2!
Just because sale, today through Sunday, for every 5 tweezers you will get one free! Either buy on the website or email me at kjslivergripper@gmail.com and I will add the free tweezer(s). It will not show on the invoice upon purchase through the website, but I will automatically add the free tweezer weather you email me or not!
4th of July Sale
Today through Sunday, for every 5 tweezers you will get one free! Either buy on the website or email me at kjslivergripper@gmail.com and I will add the free tweezer(s). It will not show on the invoice upon purchase through the website, but I will automatically add the free tweezer weather you email me or not. Happy 4th!
Tick Season
This year allergies and ticks are more prevalent than normal. On a hike the dog got 39 ticks. He is okay, but what a scary thing to come home to. He has long white fur which made it seem like the ticks were never ending. Protect yourself and the ones you love. Tweezers are very important to add to a tick kit. Stay safe!
Father's Day Sale
Today through Sunday, for every 5 tweezers you will get one free! Either buy on the website or email me at kjslivergripper@gmail.com and I will add the free tweezer(s). It will not show on the invoice upon purchase through the website, but I will automatically add the free tweezer weather you email me or not. Happy Father’s Day!
Your Articles, Your Outlet
I was lucky enough to email with a woman who sent me some articles about women’s safety a few weeks ago. I want to encourage anyone out there to send in articles or topics that you are passionate about. I like to change things up and research new things. I think it is important do to and I love to learn. Please send materials, etc to kjslivergripper@gmail.com anytime! Have a great week!
Indy 500
The Indy 500 race is the biggest sports event in the country. I was so lucky to be able to go there this year. It was my first race and first time to the mid-west. Thank you Indianapolis for being so welcome! Have a great weekend everyone!
